Tandem draft-gear for railway-cars



PATENT OFFICE.

IDEEN' if. NNOR, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO WILLIAM.' H. MINER, 0F

vCHAZY, NEW YORK.

Application. filed .lune l1, 1919, Serial No. 303,498.

To all A'lv/icm 'it 'may concern le it known 'that l, JOHN l?. CoNNon, a citizen of the United States, residing at ("hicago, in the county of Cook' and State of illinois, have invented a certain new and useful improvement in rllandem Draft- Gears for lailway-fCars, of which the fol lowing is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying` drawings, forming a part of this specilication.

My invention relates to improvements -in tandem draft gears for railway cars.

Cars now being built under the authority of the' -United States railroad administration require that they shall' be provided with draft rigging stops, spaced apart to accommodate friction gears now on the market. This requires the use of a single pocket draft strap and prevents the use of tandem stop caf-stings having end stops and intermediate stops. Many railroads desire noi;` to employ friction gears and have .made tandem spring gears standard upon their railroad equip: nient. Consequently, there is a present need. for tandem spring gears which may be employed in the made such by the railroad administration and with which friction gears employing a single poclret`yoke may be interchanged without any modification of the stops. neof the objects of this invention is to provide a tandem gear for railway cars which may be used in standard constructions now beingV huilt under the authority of the United States railroad administration and which do not employ the old form of tandem yoke having and disposed yoke thimble. .another object is to provide a tandem spring draft rigging upon which only front and rear sets of stops are used and in which. the pressure transmittingr means from the end followers to the remote springs are made stronger and more effective than heretofore, and one in which the pressure transmitting elements may be simple foundry castings.

ln the drawings forming a part of this specification, Figure l lis a lcmgitudinal horizontal section ol a draft rigging embodying my invention.l Fig-2 is a vertical transverse section taken on line 2-2 of Fig.` 1. Fig. 3 is an elevation vshowing the pressure.

transmitting means and their relative posiuow standard construction requiring a centrally,

Specification of Letters Patent. l Patented June 21, 1921.

Renewed May 1921. serial No.- 466,219.

tions when assembled. Fig. 4 `is an end View of one of the intermediate followers which my device employs.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral l0 indicates draft members or center sills to which, in the usual manner, are secured the front stop members 11-11 and the rear stop members v12-12, the same apart the present standard distance, to-wit: 24-5/8 inches. draw bar only the rear endthereof being shown, to which a yoke member 14 is secured and which is of a'smgle pocket type. Within the single pocket of this yoke are located the front and rear followers 15 and 16, respectively. v

letween the followers land 16 I interpose the followinl shock absorbing means: T andemsprings -A are employed,I each of which preferably consists of an outer heavy" coiland an inner lighter coil. Said springs are contained within counterpart casings BffB, hereinafter described in detail, and between the springs is interposed a pair of what may 'be termed` intermediate followers C-C.

Each casing B is of substantially hollow rectangular form throughout its length and open at each end.. The made in 'the form'of castings and may be cored, as indicated. at 17'-17, in order to lessen the weight. At its inner end, that is the end remote from the corresponding follower which the casing yB engages, each cas`- ingis' recessed on opposite sides, as indicated at 18-18, fora distance not lessthan the sum of thickness of one of the interme.

diate followers C 'and th permissible stroke ofthe mechanism. The recesses 18 are deued on the edges thereof'by radially extending faces, as indicated at 20-20 in Fig. 2.

Each of the intermediate followers C is also preferably in the form of a casting and is of generally circular form, as indicated at 2l in Fig. 4. Formed on diametrically disposed sides of the circular section. or disk of the follower C are laterally extending flange like sections 22-22- The outer edges thereof, indicated at 23-23, are adapted 'to extend substantially flush with the corresponding outer surfaces of the walls of the casings B, and the upper and lower edges' of said flanges 22 are formed on-inclines, as indibeing spaced The numeral 13 indicates'a A same are preferably simultaneously` sul kclosed in this application,

cated at 24T-24, to correspond with the inclined or `beveled edges 20 of the shells B to thereby form a sliding fit.

The parts are assembled as shown in the drawingthat is, one casing B and its directly actuated intermediate follower C is disposed at an angle of 90o to the other easing B and its corresponding associated intermediate follower C lin this way, one casing B will directly engage the flanges 22 of one follower C and the latter will be able to slide within therecesses 18 of the other casing B As will be evident from an inspection of Fig. l', upon relative approach lof the followersl and 16, the intermediate followers ,C` willy move correspondingly, thus A compressing the tandem springs A--A without the use of any tandem `yoke and intermediate thimble.

It will be notedvthat each of the casings B which l have provided may be manufactured readily and `cieaply as a casting without the necessity of machining or use of expensive coresf` The same is also true of the intermediate follower C. Furthermore, there are no relatively delicate or weak radial fingers or prongs such ashave heretofore been lnecessary in certain forms of draft gears of the general character disand which have prevented their successful use in actua] service conditions.' My arrangement involves Aa minimum number of parts, easily and" cheaply manufactured, and the entire device is extremely rugged and well able to withstand the heavy shocks now encountered in railway service.

The parts may be supported in any suitable manner but preferably I use a detachable saddle plate 25, and to center and guide the casing B, said saddle plate may be provided with guiding angles 26 riveted thereto, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 2.

I claim:

l. In a tandem shock absorbing mechanism, thecombination with two alined and relatively movable casings, of tandem arranged shock absorbin units within said casings, and a pair of centrally disposed detachable lfollowers interposed between the shock absorbing units, each of said followers being engaged by one of the casings and slidable withinr the other casing, veach casing being slotted at its inner end to accommodate one of said followers.

2. In a tandeln shock absorbing mechanism, the combination with two alined and relatively movable casings, 0f tandem arranged shock absorbing units within said casings, and a pair of centrally disposed deall of which are tachable followers interposed between the shock absorbing units, each of said followers being engaged by one of the casings and slidable within the other casing, each of said followers being of disk-like form having diametrically disposed flanges, the latter being directly engaged by `the corresponding casing, each casing` being slotted at itsI inner end to accommodate one of said followers.

3. ln a tandem draft gear, the combination with front and rear main followers; of alined, partially telescoped casings interposed between said followers; tandem arranged springs, one within each casing, each spring bearing` at its outer end upon one of said main followers; and a pair of intermediate followers detachably formed with respect to said easings, each of said intermediate followers engaging the inner end of one of said springs and adapted to be directlyactuated by one of said casings, each of said intermediate followers being slidable with respect to that casing within which is disposed the spring in contact with said intermediate follower, each .casing being slotted at its inner end to accommodate the sliding movement of an intermediate follower.

4C. In a tandem draft `gear, the combination with front and rear main followers; of alined, partially telescoped casings interposed between said followers; tandem arranged springs, one within each casing and bearing at its outer end upon the respective main follower; and a pair of intermediate followers separately formed with respect to the casings, one intermediate follower engaging the inner end of the spring in one casing and adapted to be directly actuated by the other casing, the other intermediate follower engaging the inner end of the other spring rand adapted to be directly actuated by the remaining casing, each intermediate follower being slidable with respect to that casing within which is disposed that spring in contact therewith, each of said intermediate followers being of substantially disk form with diametrically disposed flanges havingr radially Yextendii'ig bearing faces on which therespective intermediate followers are slidable, said casing having coperating 'adially extending bearing faces, each casing being slotted. at its inner end to accommodate the sliding movement of the respective intermediate followers.

ln witness that l claim the" foregoing l have hereunto subscribed my name Athis 29 day of May, 1919.

conn r. olconnc 

